Quantum Apologetics and Quantum Theology

As an atheist, I started out frustrated by how little interest religious people had in debating their beliefs. Much of that was probably to do with how obnoxious it was to be “debated” by a socially awkward ten-year-old. But as I appreciate now, defending religious beliefs is just not a core activity for most religious people, even the experts. While there are many theologians who study the doctrines of their various religions, only a few engage in apologetics: arguments designed to convince people on the outside. The rest work within a particular religion, working out its implications. There’s a similar, less-often-noticed behavior when it comes to interpretations of quantum mechanics. Much like religions, there are many different interpretations of quantum mechanics, from people who envision a fundamentally undetermined world to those who picture a vast multiverse of all possibilities, to people who think quantum mechanics needs to be supplemented with faster-than-light signals,…